A woman from Canada has handed back a piece of ruins from the ancient city of Pompeii more than 50 years after she first took it. The woman picked up a small decoration, which was part of a theatre entrance, during her honeymoon in Italy. She put it in her bag and took it back with her to Montreal. Pompeii is one of Italy's most visited sites. A sudden eruption of Mt Vesuvius in 79 AD buried and largely preserved the town under ash. The woman - who has not been named - kept it with her for half a century but clearly her actions nagged away at her. So this month she travelled back to Italy to hand back the fragment.

Captain Carmine Elefante, who runs the police's Cultural Heritage Protection Group in Naples, says that the woman - now in her 70s - was in tears when she gave it back.

Rolf Harris has lost the first round of a legal challenge against his conviction for indecent assaults. The disgraced entertainer was jailed in July for nearly six years for 12 indecent assaults on four girls, including one aged just seven or eight. The Judicial Office confirmed a judge had refused his application for permission to appeal, lodged in August. But the 84-year-old can still renew the application before three judges at the Court of Appeal. The artist, TV presenter and musician was convicted at London's Southwark Crown Court in June.

Anti-corruption investigators in China have confirmed the reported seizure of the equivalent of $33m in cash at an official's home in May - the biggest such haul to date. More than 200m yuan (£20m) were found and four out of 16 counting machines broke whilst measuring the notes, a prosecutor said. Senior energy official Wei Pengyuan is under investigation for corruption.

President Xi Jinping has promised to tackle corruption in China. The massive haul, first reported in the Chinese press in May, was confirmed at a news conference by top anti-bribery prosecutor Xu Jinhui. Mr Wei, who is the deputy chief of the National Energy Administration's coal department, was put under investigation in May for allegedly accepting bribes following the discovery of the hidden cash. China has sentenced more than 13,000 officials found guilty of corruption and bribery in the first nine months of 2014 alone.

This year's Halloween has been the warmest on record in the UK, BBC weather has said.A temperature of 23.6C (74.3F) was recorded in Gravesend, Kent and Kew Gardens, Greater London, surpassing the previous record of 20.0C. Other parts of the south of England and the north coasts of Wales and Norfolk also broke the 20C mark.The previous record was set in Dartford, Kent, in 1968 and matched in parts of Greater London in 1989.At 12:20 GMT, the Met Office tweeted: "Charlwood has beaten Filton, recording 22.5 °C. This makes it the warmest #Halloween on record!"

Russia's capital Moscow has ranked in ninth place on a list of the world's most dangerous transport systems for women — the only city in Europe to feature inside the top 10.

The survey, carried out by the Thomson Reuters Foundation in collaboration with online pollster YouGov, focused on 16 of the world's most populous capital cities as defined by the United Nations.

An exception was made for New York, which was included in place of Washington DC as the most populous city in the U.S., and was ranked the safest in the poll published Wednesday.

A minimum of 380 women and at least nine women's rights and gender experts were interviewed in each city for the survey, which ranked Moscow's transport system as the ninth-worst for women after the Thai capital of Bangkok.

Those polled were questioned on six topics, including traveling alone at night, risk of being verbally harassed by men, and risk of being groped or subjected to other forms of physical harassment. Respondents were left to decide what constituted "harassment" in their respective societies.

Nearly four decades have passed, but Cecilia Rojas cries for her son as if she had lost him yesterday. Rojas, a 58-year-old resident of the Chilean capital of Santiago, said her baby was taken shortly after she gave birth. He was born two months early, but doctors and nurses assured Rojas that he was healthy and would soon be sent home with her.

"The nurse put the baby on my chest while she finished the paperwork," Rojas recalled in an emotional interview with CNN. "Then she told me they were going to take him to an incubator because he was a little small." She would never see him again. The next morning, a nurse told Rojas the infant had died. Her requests to view his body were denied, Rojas said. She was never given a death certificate.

The fur is flying at Milan’s La Scala, with the celebrated lyric theatre caught in a cat fight with opera legend Franco Zeffirelli.

The prickly, 91-year-old director has expressed outrage at the way he says one of his “greatest” productions, the 2006 version of Aida, has been flogged off to a theatre in Astana, Kazakhstan, without his say-so.He said in an open letter that the sale of the rights and props to the Astana theatre had doomed his work to an “infamous and brutal” fate, and he threatened to call in the lawyers. He didn’t say why Kazakhs should not be allowed to enjoy his classic production.

The ploy by the Milan opera house was, he said, part of a plan by the institution’s managers to airbrush him from Italian opera history.“I have seen a sort of vendetta on the part of the brainboxes of La Scala who regard me as an artist to forget,” Mr Zeffirelli told The Independent. “We’re talking about, in reality, with all due humility, the greatest production of this masterpiece that I’ve ever brought to the public. They really should have consulted me. After all this time with La Scala, they should have shown more respect. I am seeing my lawyers.”La Scala insisted that the sale to the Kazakh theatre – where Aida debuts on 19 November – has fully protected the rights of Mr Zeffirelli and the costume designer Maurizio Millenotti, both of whom have already been contacted by the Astana opera house to organise their due payments.La Scala said that the Kazakh institution had even asked Mr Zeffirelli to come over to Astana to advise them. As a result, La Scala chiefs have expressed “bitterness and disbelief” at Mr Zeffirelli’s claims; not unlike the bitterness and disbelief shown by the opera house’s notoriously bolshie audience, which booed off the sub-par second tenor on the sophomore night of the original production. He had to be replaced at the last minute by his substitute in jeans.

But there’s no doubting the huge success of the production, which has proven a money-spinner for La Scala with 47 performances since 2006. This week’s developments suggest, though, that the long and fruitful collaboration between the celebrated opera house and the great director, which began in 1953 with Mr Zeffirelli designing costumes, is now at an end, La Stampa newspaper said.Mr Zeffirelli is also celebrated for his film career. His leading achievements in cinema include his 1968 version of Romeo and Juliet, for which he was nominated for an Oscar, and the previous year’s The Taming of the Shrew, starring Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton.

Head of Kazakhstani Frontier Service has been arrested on suspicion of corruption.

The military court of Akmola garrison sanctioned on Wednesday (October 29) the arrest of head of Kazakhstan's Frontier Service Nurlan Dzhulamanov until December 27, the court's press service reports.Dzhulamanov is suspected of accepting a multi-million bribe. He is also believed to form and lead a criminal group.According to the court's press service, the arrest may be extended. The investigation is underway.Earlier it was reported that head of the Frontier Service Nurlan Dzhulamanov had been detained on October 27, 2014.Dzhulamanov assumed the office of the head of the Frontier Service of the Republic of Kazakhstan in January 2013. Previously he held the highest of military positions in the Kazakh Armed Forces and served as deputy Defense Minister of Kazakhstan.

At least five people have been injured in a large blaze at a fireworks factory. Police said emergency services responded to "an explosion" and fire in Tilcon Avenue, Stafford. The fire service said the blaze was "escalating".

The alarm was raised at 5:15pm as worried local residents reported hearing a loud bang and seeing smoke coming from the premises.West Midlands Ambulance Service said two patients were being taken to the major trauma centre at University Hospital North Staffordshire. One has burn injuries, the other has smoke inhalation. It said two other patients were discharged on scene and a further patient has minor injuries. Police said a cordon was in place to protect the public and residents in the Baswich area were urged to remain indoors with windows closed.

A photograph of a mother breastfeeding her premature baby has gone viral after it was deleted by Facebook. Emma Bond's picture of her feeding newborn Carene was removed after complaints it contained nudity. Ms Bond later uploaded it to a pro-breastfeeding group - where it attracted 166,000 "likes" - but users who then shared it to Facebook found their links were deleted. Facebook said the photo was removed in error but had now been put back up.

Burkina Faso President Blaise Compaore has imposed a state of emergency after violent protests at his bid to extend his 27-year rule. The government and parliament have been dissolved, and an overnight curfew has been declared across the country. Protests to demand Mr Compaore's resignation are continuing in the capital, Ouagadougou. Angry crowds had earlier set fire to the parliament and other government buildings. This forced MPs to abandon a vote aimed at allowing Mr Compaore to seek re-election in 2015.

Russian billionaire oligarch Vladimir Yevtushenkov has suffered another legal defeat. Moscow’s Arbitration Court has ruled the stake he holds in a privatised oil producer – Bashneft – must be given back to the state. The judge agreed with prosecutors that Bashneft was illegally privatised without federal government approval over a decade ago before being sold to Yevtushenkov’s company Sistema in 2009. Sistema, which denies the allegations, has one month to appeal against the decision. Yevtushenkov, who is one of Russia’s richest men, is currently under house arrest in a separate case on suspicion of money laundering related to the purchase of Bashneft. The case has worried many in Russia’s business community and deepen investors’ fears that the Kremlin wants to reclaim prized assets. Some see echoes of the events surroundingMikhail Khodorkovsky, once Russia’s richest man. He was jailed on fraud and tax evasion charges after falling out withPresident Vladimir Putinand hisYukosoil company seized by the government.

The Italian Agency ANSA and the magazine Corriere posted that the Minister Tremonti is under investigation for corruption in connection with an alleged bribe received by Finmeccanica. The Minister does not say anything but in his studio in Milan has received the visit of Police who raided the premises.

Strategic nuclear submarine Yuri Dolgoruky has launched a Bulava intercontinental ballistic missile from the Barents Sea towards the Kura testing range in Kamchatka, the press service of the Russian Defense Ministry told TASS on Wednesday.

"The missile was launched from the submerged position," a spokesman said. "The parameters of the flight trajectory have been fulfilled as required. Data control shows the warheads of the missile reached the Kura testing facility successfully.

According the ministry’s data, this launch had a special feature, as the submarine had a complete set of missiles aboard.

It was the first missile launch after the Yuri Dolgoruky strategic nuclear submarine joined Russia's Northern Fleet.

The previous launches of the Bulava missiles were paerformed as part of a program of flight development testing.

A website which uses DNA swabs to determine a romantic match has received hundreds of thousands of dollars of new investment.

SingldOut has closed a $600,000 (£372,000) seed round - bringing to a close a six-month beta testing phase of the site. The site's users are asked to take a swab of DNA which is then sent back. Partner company Instant Chemistry then looks at specific parts of the genetic code to help determine romantic compatibility between users. It focuses on the three genes within the Human Leukocyte Antigen system which play a role in biological compatibility, the pheromones we release and the makeup of our immune system.

A dog breeder has been found guilty of murdering his partner and her daughter at his puppy farm. John Lowe, 82, opened fire on 66-year-old Christine Lee and her daughter Lucy Lee, 40, with a shotgun he normally used for killing rats. Christine's daughter, Stacy Banner, said after his trial: "The shotgun was one of seven that had been returned to him by the police only months before he used it to kill."

The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) has launched a formal criminal probe into Tesco's accounting crisis that led the UK's biggest retailer to overstate profits by £263m. The news was confirmed by both the supermarket chain and SFO, hours afterSky News revealed detailsof the investigation, which will be held in addition to an inquiry by the accounting watchdog. The City regulator, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), said that it was to discontinue its own probe because of the SFO's decision. The SFO's investigation, while not entirely unexpected, adds to the sense of crisis at Tesco. The company, which has lost more than half its value during the last year, has been hit by unprecedented boardroom turmoil, with the chairman, Sir Richard Broadbent, planning to quit next year.

An Italian priest who recently admitted to “grave acts” on a teenage girl hanged himself in the vestry of his church, it’s emerged. It came on Tuesday only moments before a bishop came to announce the priest’s side-lining, announced the diocese of Trieste, in north-east Italy. Maks Suard, 48, had told Trieste’s bishop – during a telephone conversation days earlier – of historic acts on a 13-year-old girl, according to AFP. He then asked His Grace Giampaolo Crepaldi for two days to prepare a letter begging forgiveness to God, the Church and the victim, reported the news agency. But, when the bishop arrived on Tuesday (October 28) afternoon to officially notify the priest of his firing from the parish, he found him hanged in the church’s vestry.​The Trieste diocese asked in a statement that people pray for the soul of the priest. The diocese also expressed regrets that the case could not follow its “canon and judicial path” which could have brought the priest “a human and Christian recovery desirable in the respect of the laws”.

A 140-ton supercomputer that can perform more than 16,000 trillion calculations per second is set to give the UK its most accurate weather forecasts ever. The £97m machine will be fired up at the Met Office next year and will crunch data at a blistering rate using the memory equivalent to 120,000 top-end smartphones. It will be 13 times more powerful than the current system, making it one of the world's fastest high performance computers (HPCs). Met Office's chief executive Rob Varley said the machine would be a "step change", allowing hourly updates and highly detailed forecasts for areas as small as 300m.

Italy’s President Giorgio Napolitano has testified in a major trial that accuses the state of holding secret talks with the Sicilian Mafia in the 1990s. Among the 10 defendants are Nicola Mancino, who was interior minister at the time, and Salvatore Riina, once Italy’s most powerful mob boss.

Prosecutors are seeking to shed light on a dark period when organised crime targeted the state with assassinations and bombings. They allege senior politicians and police, hoping to stem mounting violence, held talks with mob bosses after anti-Mafia judge Giovanni Falcone, his wife and three bodyguards were killed by a Mafia bomb in 1992. Euronews’ correspondent in Rome, Sabrina Pisu, said: “It’s the first time ever that the doors of the presidential palace have been opened to prosecutors. The trial of the so-called ‘negotiations between the Italian State and Mafia’ is taking place at the Quirinale Palace, hearing some extraordinary testimony by Giorgio Napolitano. The families of the victims have never stopped demanding the truth be told and justice to be served.”